Bethany Deschenes

We were a group of four from the US, that enjoyed our tour of St Petersburg, Russia. It is a truly beautiful city that is full of rich history.
We loved our tour guide Anna! She put us at ease right away, as we were not sure what to expect. Anna showed us the great beauty of St Petersburg, she was very informative, fun and accommodating to our group. Thank you very much Anna!

TOUR GUIDE RESPONSE: Thank you very much for your feedback!! Enjoy your trip and have more fun!
Anna

Josephine Yong

We thoroughly enjoyed our two days with Anna in St Petersburg. She was knowledgeable, professional and speaks English fluently. Anna and Alexander, the driver, was flexible too and we enjoyed many other sights beyond what were in the agreed itinerary. She is also very responsive in responding to emails prior to the trip.
We highly recommend using Anna in your tours of St Petersburg and the surrounding areas. She is indeed a gem of a tour guide for us in St Petersburg!

Nancy Cornelius

Our guide, Anna, could not have been better. She scheduled a comprehensive 2 day tour of St. Petersburg that flowed beautifully. She was was very knowledgeable, interesting and professional. The driver, Alexander. was also fantastic. Highly recommended!

Ian Waddell

Anna was highly recommended by some good friends and she gave us the best tour we could possibly imagine.
Her English was excellent and her knowledge of St Petersburg and pride in her city and it's Attractions ,Art & Culture was truly valuable.
We enjoyed working with her to design our tour.
We wouldn't hesitate to recommend her.

TOUR GUIDE RESPONSE: Thank you dear Ian! I deeply appreciate your interest and choice of those places that we visited.

Cheryl Whitham

Anna was the perfect guide. Friendly,informative and knowledgeable.
Although we had set a tentative itinerary she was flexible and made suggestions to suit our style and what we enjoyed. The Soccer World Cup was on during our tour and the city was very busy but she worked around this and we had no problems.. we came away with lots of knowledge about the history and also the people living in the city today. We would recommend Anna to anyone.

TOUR GUIDE RESPONSE: Dear Cheryl and Tony,
Thank you for being my guests and for your kind feedback. Have a great trip!

Kenneth Bowlby

The arrangements Anna made for us to see and experience "real" Russian life in a rural setting were stunningly great! Anna went out of her way (literally and figuratively!) to accommodate our hopes for a unique day with unique insights. Thanks, Anna!

TOUR GUIDE RESPONSE: Thank you dear Kenneth and Rose, that tour is very memorable for me too.

Phuong Nguyen

Our 3-day tour with Anna was wonderful: Very comprehensive, engaging, and perfectly paced! Our interests are wide, but Anna very thoughtfully put together a personalized itinerary for us, and even then she was willing (& able!) to improvise on the spot when we wanted to add a visit to the Tikhvin Cemetery and Nevsky Monastery! Anna's English is flawless and precise, and she is a very personable and warm person who shares with us her knowledge of her magnificent city like a friend. Thank you, Anna!

TOUR GUIDE RESPONSE: Dear Phuong and Aminah,
It was a special pleasure to be your tour guide. Your profound interest and advanced research about some less known places amazed me. Thank you very much for your review!
Anna

Alan Ernst

Four of us on a Viking Cruise had the extreme pleasure of spending two days with Anna P. in St. Petersburg area. She was well versed in Russian history and was able to add many details that one might not find on a larger tour. Outstanding English skills both on our tour, but even more important in our pre-tour emails in setting up the tour and the all important tour tickets (your temporary Russian visa).
Her choices for our lunches on both days proved to be outstanding! Sept. 6&7 2017

Jean Ostertag

Wow, what can I say about Anna. Loved her. We were with her two days and enjoyed her the whole time. She was knowledgeable and knew what to show us. Took us to great places to eat. I would use her again. So friendly and fun.

Denise Souder

Anna P. and her driver were absolutely fantastic. Anna is very knowledgeable in the history of St. Petersburg, and the sites she chose for us were perfect. The minivan was just the right size so we were not cramped in the car space. Would definitely recommend Anna P. and her driver for St. Petersburg tour.

Michael Chan

Anna was a very knowledgable guide. Her English was also very easy to understand. Her driver, Paul, was excellent as he dropped us off then picked us up when parking was an issue. Anna was flexible with timing, and ensured we covered all the main attractions in our two day tour. We were able to skip the lines on many things casinos, so we could maximise our time at th various attractions.

Lianna Klassen

Anna is a wonderful guide and very personable. Her english is great and her knowledge of the history of St. Petersburg was well informed. Tours by locals is a great way to see a city and also get a feel for the people. I highly recommend Anna.

Nanette Dean

Anna was a major factor in St Petersburg being the highlight of our Baltic cruise. Her English was perfect and provided the perfect local color to our Russian experience. Anna and a driver took care of everything and graciously accommodated our slower pace and special tour requests. I highly recommend Anna for your trip.

TOUR GUIDE RESPONSE: Dear Nanette,
Thank you very much for your review. I appreciate you being my guests. Sending my best wishes!
Anna

David Calobrisi

Anna is a gem. Our group of eight English and French speakers asked her hundreds of questions over three days and she always had an answer, in either language. She has an encyclopedic knowledge of Russian history, St. Petersburg, art, and literature. She is also a lovely person who felt more like a friend than a tour guide, just the ninth member of our happy group. We thoroughly enjoyed our time with Anna and our trip would not have been half so memorable or enjoyable without her. Thank you, dear Anna.

TOUR GUIDE RESPONSE: Dear David and all all all!
I thank you very much for your kindest review and for the great opporunity to meet such wonderful people.
I had three beautiful days with you!
Anna

David Jaye

Anna made our trip to St. Petersburg a lifelong memory. She is an exceptional guide! Everything we wanted to do, Anna was able to get it done. We are so happy to have met Anna. She helped us avoid the long lines by showing us the areas to avoid during the peak times of the day. We could not recommend Anna Ponomaryova enough, she is an outstanding guide. We felt like we had a private history teacher for 2 days!

TOUR GUIDE RESPONSE: Dear David, thank you so much for your warmest words. I am so happy that your family and you liked your Russian tour. Your feedback is very important to me and also very encouraging.
I am sending my warmest regards to all of you!

Ruben Khadiullin

We enjoyed Anna's guidance a lot! She expertly arranged and led a tour to Peterhof for 15 people. She has profound knowledge of cultural and historic facts, excellent command of English, as well as very friendly and welcoming attitude! We are very grateful for the time well spent! Many thanks, Anna!

TOUR GUIDE RESPONSE: Thank you Ruben! You guys were a wonderful team))

Kim Penney

Anna was the perfect fit for our family of grown kids. She was flexible to our desires and thorough in her planning ahead as to my requests. I highly recommend Anna for a refreshing way to learn of beautiful St Petersburg.

TOUR GUIDE RESPONSE: Thank you, Kim! I send my greetings to your grown kids as well and wishing you and them all the best!

Gail Jones

Anna was a very knowledgable and thorough tour guide. Her English was better than mine and she was able to effortlessly rearrange our schedule when circumstances required, particularly when it took nearly three hours to clear Customs at the ferry port in St. Petersburg. She seemed to know all the tricks to get into the palace and museums in a timely manner and was diligent about asking us about our interests and tailoring the tour toward those. Meals were great and Sergei was an excellent driver.

TOUR GUIDE RESPONSE: Dear Gail,
Thank you for your beautiful review! I spent two amazing days with you and your family. Wish you all the best!
Anna

Amber Isak

Anna was an outstanding guide! Her English was excellent & she did a great job balancing everything we requested in our itinerary; we were seeing quite a bit but she kept us on schedule to see it all without ever making us feel pressured b.c of time constraints or skipping sights. She was extremely knowledgeable about everything we saw and at the end, even accommodated a change in our drop off & personally paid for the Uber to get us there. Anna is very friendly & helpful and we'd highly recommend her!

TOUR GUIDE RESPONSE: Dear Amber,
Thank you very much, this was a great pleasure for me to be your tour guide. Thank you for visiting StPetersburg!
Anna

Alice McGuire

Anna is a wonderful guide. She was able to tell us the history of the area from social, cultural and political aspects. She made getting in places easy an pleasant. She was flexible when we wanted to make a change in the itinerary and made the tour relaxing as well as enjoyable. I feel I got my moneys worth, and would definitely tour with her again.

TOUR GUIDE RESPONSE: Thank you very much, Alice. For me it was a pleasure to have you and Charlotte as my guests. Wish you new wonderful trips!

Göran Larsson

Anna P was our guide for a day when we - a group of four people - visited St Petersburg. She is an absolutely fantastic guide - we were very impressed both with her knowledge and her social skills in sharing this knowledge with us. She guided us at the Hermitage and the Impressionist Museum and when summing up our trip to St Petersburg we concluded that Anna - and the knowledge she contributed - was a very vital part of our successful trip. We very strongly recommend her as your guide!

TOUR GUIDE RESPONSE: Thank you very much for a nice review, Goran! I was pleased to be your guide in the Hermitage. Send my greetings to your friends!
Anna.

Peter Sutherland

We went with Anna P on the winter in st Petersburg tour for 2 days.
From a practical point of view Anna was prompt and efficient at bypassing long queues and allowing us to see as much as possible in 2 days. From a personal perspective Anna was a pleasure to be with having excellent English a keen knowledge of Russian history and a sense of humour. We would highly recommend Anna to anyone visiting St Petersburg.

TOUR GUIDE RESPONSE: Dear Peter and Lesley,
Thank you very much! It was great to meet you. Wish you many wonderful trips ahead!!
Anna

Helen Maynard

Amazing 4 days with Anna in her incredible city. She really does know the best spots, is very knowledgeable, and great company too. Nothing was too much trouble for her- she was flexible around pre booked tickets and very intuitive too. She quickly worked out our particular likes, dislikes and interests and helped us identify and arrange activities she thought we would enjoy- a classical concert, the Russian ballet, a museum on political history and even a visit to a local banya! One in a million.

TOUR GUIDE RESPONSE: Dear Helen and Charles,
Thank you very much for your review, I am so happy that you liked our tour and enjoyed your stay in St Petersburg. Thank you for being so adventurous and open. It was a pleasure for me to be your local guide in St Petersburg.

Scott B.

United States

Rating

Tour: Tour to Novgorod and local life city tour., Saint Petersburg, Sankt-Peterburg, RussiaDate: Sep 23/16

We had an exceptional two days with Anna. Our first day was spent in Novgorod and required extensive pre-planning to coordinate train schedules, local Novgorod driver support, and a list of visitation sites. Anna was very good about providing me with periodic updates about this portion of our tour. Our second day was spent touring the residential areas of the northern part of St. Petersburg; Anna provided us with a very good idea of what it is like to be a resident in Russia these days. Scott

Anna was very professional, insightful, and friendly, as she took us to some "behind the scenes" locations, for a very enjoyable day, from a local perspective. The pelmeni lunch was great, as was the market, and the river cruise. Would not hesitate to recommend her!

Oliver Darden

Anna was an absolutely superb tour guide! Her knowledge of St. Petersburg is simply outstanding but even more importantly she became our friend going out of her way to fulfill every request we had.While she does provide a schedule she always remains flexible to accommodate any needs or changes which may occur. We could have taken one of the large group tours offered by our ship instead of contracting her individualized service and I am so glad we made that choice.

TOUR GUIDE RESPONSE: Thank you dear friends, I am so much touched with your words. And Thank you for your choice!

Bonnie Russell

What a wonderful two days. We saw every site we wanted to see plus so much more. Anna P. had a wonderful outlook had both days well organized was flexible when our requests or traffic jams were a challenge and her English was nearly perfect. We would recommend her to anyone wanting to see St. Petersburg

TOUR GUIDE RESPONSE: Thank you, dear Bonnie and Larry! I had a wonderful time with you and enjoyed those two days too.

Jon Adams

Anna was a wonderful guide. She was very familiar with the city and knowledgable about its history and the culture. She was very attuned to our needs a adjusted our tour to meet our needs. We highly recommend her.

TOUR GUIDE RESPONSE: Thank you, Jon! I was very pleased to meet all of you in StPetersburg!

James Allan

Anna was very punctual and polite. she changed and added things on the day. She arranged all the tickets and got us in and out of places(including checking in coats and bags and sorting out lunch) without any fuss.
She explained clearly what we were seeing and answered any questions we asked.
We all had a great day.

TOUR GUIDE RESPONSE: Thank you James!
It was great idea to come to St Petersburg. I hope you enjoyed your entire stay here.
Anna

Frederick M.

Anna was a knowledgeable, conscientious and, above all, an intelligent guide. Many guides can show you the sites, but Anna knew her Russian literature as well, and was able to tell me who and what to read, including authors I hadn't been aware of. Another thing I particularly liked: when Anna was taking you to a new site, she would find the best vantage point from which to approach it, and was always aware of the drama of the city. Open and personable, she was a pleasure to be with.

TOUR GUIDE RESPONSE: Dear Fred,
Thank you for your nice review and attention. I appreciate it very much. Anna.

Marat Akopian

Excellent tour guide. Very knowledgeable, arranged a flexible schedule, and delivered a very good value. Particularly enjoyed the Peter and Paul fortress, Peterhof Palace, and city tour by boat. Information/history/background provided by Anna during the tour significantly enhanced the overall experience. Thank you!

TOUR GUIDE RESPONSE: Thank you Marat, it was a big pleasure to be your tour guide because of your openess and interest to our history. You are welcome back! Anna.

Pankaj Ahuja

Very rarely you come across people who are passionate about their work. Anna is 1 of the rare tour guides I have come across. The way she explains every single detail with patience and a sweet little smile is simply incredible. It is extremely difficult to satisfy people in a Big Group but in our case we all were very Happy. From the beginning till the end of the tour Anna will make you fall in Love with her City.

TOUR GUIDE RESPONSE: Thank you Pankaj for this beautiful review. You made my day.
Hello to your friends!

Terry McGaul

Anna made our visit extremely interesting and enjoyable. She was very knowledgable and good company and answered numerous questions in a very good natured manner. We are very pleased that we had Anna to show us the city.

TOUR GUIDE RESPONSE: Thank you very much Terry, you are very kind!
It was a great pleasure to me to meet you both.

Genne Johnston

We only had 2 days in St Petersburg and knew this would be our only visit. From our list of must see sights, Anna designed a well planned schedule. We had a fabulous experience thanks to her and all her efforts. No waiting in lines, she knew the best times to be at each sight and we learned so much about the city, about Russia, about life in Russia. Anna thought of everything! GREAT tour!!! Highly recommend!!!

TOUR GUIDE RESPONSE: Dear Genne and Rick! I was very glad to meet you! Thank you for your kind review!!!

Shawn Zou

United States

Rating

Tour: St Petersburg in the Spotlight. 2 day tour with the Faberge museum., Sankt-Peterburg, Sankt-Peterburg, RussiaDate: May 12/16

Anna is a very experienced and knowledgeable guide, who met all of our expectations and some more. We were very impressed with her knowledge with the city, the culture and the history and with her professionalism. She is the best. We would recommend her to our friends and to anyone who visits SPB.

TOUR GUIDE RESPONSE: Thank you very-very much!!!

Joe Murray

We asked Anna to give us a feel for everyday life for a typical citizen of St Petersburg. She did more than we ever expected. Not only did we shop in a local market, but we took the tram to get there, took the subway, and even had coffee and doughnuts in a little shop she went to as a youngster. She was extremely pleasant,
spoke perfect English, and left us in great spirits at the end of our tour.

TOUR GUIDE RESPONSE: Dear Joe, thank you very much for you feedback. I enjoyed time I spent with you and Michele. Sincerely yours, Anna.

Tom H.

Anna P, our guide, was very nice and knowledgeable. We enjpoyed the visited sights and the information she gave us during the tour. I strongly recommend Anna P for tours in SPB. If I go back I would love to have Anna as my guide.

TOUR GUIDE RESPONSE: Dear Julia, I am glad to hear from you and I would like to thank you all!

Alexander T.

Anna is first class perfect. Everything was way above and beyond expectations, from Russian dinners to history to ballet to shopping. Not even the best gypsy fortune teller could have foretold this fantastic experience of a lifetime. My wife and I are indeed thankful to her.

TOUR GUIDE RESPONSE: Dear Alex and Arlette, it was an unforgettable experience for me too. Really hope to see you again and show you the Russian village, flea market and more..Anna.

Kirk Grimm

Anna is very professional and exceeded our expectations. We were able to make our own itinerary and because of Anna's connections at the main sights we were able to skip the long lines. With a major in history and her background in the tourism industry, Anna is the best choice for tours.

TOUR GUIDE RESPONSE: Dear Kirk! I was very glad to meet you and your wanderful family!
Thank you for choosing this non-standard tour! Anna

Richard Carter

My wife and I had a great three days with Anna. Weather was fantastic and we were able to see all the sights that we had read about in books on St Petersburg. We would recommend TBL and Anna to our friends or anyone interested in seeing St. Petersburg

TOUR GUIDE RESPONSE: Thank you Richard. I was very glad to meet you. Anna